Muscle Or Not?

Discovering a muscle car heretofore unrecognized in the hobby is exciting. When Don Stewart showed up at the Mopar Nats in Columbus, Ohio, with this Rambler Classic 770 H two-door hardtop, I was curious about the Tri Poised Power decal on the air cleaner. Was this AMC’s version of GM’s Tri-power? A silver and orange decal, obviously factory, on the valve covers read 327 V8. This wasn’t a big-block, but the model year was ’65, fairly early in the muscle car era. Muscle cars are not muscle based solely on horsepower. One has to look at them in a historical perspective.

2/9

The H after the 770 intrigued me. What did H stand for? Hurst? Hot? High, as in high performance?

Don was not an AMC aficionado. He was a car collector. He did have an interesting story of the car’s provenance.

“There was a Rambler dealer in Ashland, Kentucky, named D. Avery Smith. When this car came out, AMC was trying to get in the Chevelle market. They were going to build a limited number of them. And as I understand it, if you were a dealer and wanted one, you got into what was like a lotto system.”

3/9The H at the end of the 770 badge on the front fenders stands for a high trim level, not high performance or Hurst, as some people say.

Stewart could not verify this history because Smith was dead and his son had Alzheimer’s disease. What he did glean was that Smith saw this 770 H come off the transport and said, “That’s the prettiest Rambler they’ve ever made.” So he did not sell the car.

Smith’s son, John, was getting married and starting a family. Eventually he took the car, drove it maybe 40,000 to 50,000 miles, and “kept it spotless,” says Don. After 10 years he stored the slick little hardtop in a garage. About 15 years ago, John tore the AMC apart for a restoration. He had original parts but wasn’t a restorer. John approached Don, a known collector in the area, about purchasing the 770 H.

Don knew John was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, so he “called the kids” and John’s wife to let them know. They had no interest in the Rambler and approved the sale with the understanding that Don would put the car together for their father to see, and they had first chance to buy it back.

4/9Is a ’65 Rambler intermediate with a 270hp 327 a muscle car? The 327 was as hot as it got for ’65 Ramblers. That year the Classic series was as small as it got, and the two-door hardtop with bucket seats was as sporty as it got. Owner Don Stewart could not resist mounting a set of Javelin wheels. Hubcaps with spinners were stock on this Rambler.

Don is the CFO of one of the largest furniture retailers in the country. He has two mechanics working at his private shop who restore his cars in-house. The AMC restoration took about six months.

The car needed to be driven. One day Don fired up the 327 and drove the sharp little two-door hardtop to a cruise, where he was pleasantly surprised.

After a couple more cruise-ins with more positive responses, Don’s buddies encouraged him to take the car to the Mopar Nationals.

“I said, ‘Those are Mopars. I have an AMC.’ They told me Mopar accepted the Ramblers.”

Encouraged, Don drove his 770 H to the Nats, where I photographed it. Months later, back in my office, I began researching its history. I became concerned about the car’s muscle-car status when I could not find mention of it in several of my reference books.

5/9White vinyl bucket seats add to the compact car’s sporty flavor. Rambler did very well in the late ’50s and early ’60s by equipping its compacts with a level of luxury. The two-tone steering wheel is stock on this 770 H, as are the bucket seats and sporty dash.

The Rambler, I discovered, was a very successful intermediate car in the late ’50s and early ’60s, selling more cars than Plymouth. Also, in 1957 Rambler built a specialty car in the upper priced Custom series called the Rebel. The Rebel was a four-door hardtop with a new 327 ci V-8 with 255 hp and 9.5:1 compression, big stuff for AMC.

Was the ’57 Rebel a muscle car? I called Larry Mitchell, an AMC expert and author of several AMC books. He said yes, he believed it was. The car turned impressive times for 1957. While I had him on the phone, I asked him about the ’65 Rambler Classic 770 H. What did “Tri Poised Power” mean?

Larry said, “‘Tri Posed Power’ was the mounting system of that engine, and they all said that on them.”

“All the what?”

“All the 327s.”

Rambler, apparently, aimed the flair of their cars in a different direction than the Big Three. Tri Poised Power simply referred to three motor mounts.

6/9The Flash-O-Matic shifter on the console hinted at a performance automatic.

I asked about the H after the 770. Larry said, “Some people have said it has to do with Hurst. It doesn’t. The H refers to the high-level trim.”

I moved on to the story passed down about the limited run of this series and AMC wanting to compete against the Chevelle. Larry said he didn’t know everything about AMC, but he had never heard of a limited or special run of ’65 Ramblers. The closest he could come in this time frame was the ’64 Typhoon painted Solar Yellow but powered by a six-cylinder. The ’66½ Rambler American Rogue came with AMC’s new 290ci V-8, bucket seats, a four-speed, and a two-tone Sun Gold and black paint scheme.

So, does this ’65 Rambler Classic 770 H with a 270hp 327ci four-barrel V-8 qualify as a muscle car? Mitchell, an AMC enthusiast most of his life, said no way.

7/9At 270 hp, the 327’s output was comparable to the 250 hp produced by Chevrolet’s base 327 in 1965. The key word there is “base.” Hotter versions of Chevy’s small-block were available. The Tri Poised Power decal on the air cleaner assembly refers to the motor mounts, not a multiple carburetor setup. The valve covers reveal the cubic inches with factory decals.

What is a muscle car? The ’64 GTO was the first, in my opinion, an intermediate with the larger V-8 engine of a fullsize sedan. Detroit applied this formula to sports cars, pony cars, and compact cars. Enthusiasts have expanded the definition of a muscle car to include pre-’64 American cars as well as late models.

So, does this Rambler qualify? The engine is the hottest in the lineup. The little AMC did attract plenty of attention at the Mopar Nationals and many local cruise-ins. Please email with your yes or no votes, as well as comments on how you define a muscle car.